Hey all, I'm looking for some general advice and maybe some specific help. I posted this to the Xbox Forum, but really didn't get any answers.
I'm looking for a way to take all of my DVDs and put them on to my Xbox. I already have all of the hardware and I was looking for some additional software advice on how to proceed. Currently I have a QNAP TS-101 (highly recommended) and a Xbox 360. I have a bunch of shows that I put on the QNAP (which uses TwonkyMedia Server 4.3) and have linked my Xbox to the TwonkyMedia server. The files that I have on the Twonky are all in WMV and are all standard def (640x480) encoded at ~800 kbps. The files look good, but the source material (recorded off regular cable) wasn't great so I wasn't worried about quality.
However, now, I'm looking to take my DVDs (especially my TV show DVDs) and turn them into data files for watching on the Xbox. I've got two concerns, size and quality. Certainly I'll have to balance both. I don't want to lose the HD quality of my DVDs while converting. Also, since I encoded a bunch of WMV last time, Xbox has enabled h.264 support and I was wondering if that was a better option. I prefer standard formats like h.264 when I can, just because I believe there is a future there and less lock in, as opposed to Microsoft's WMV.
The last variable is that I have a Quad core CPU and really need to be taking advantage of it, so I want programs that have the options to use all 4 CPU cores.
So finally, my questions:
1. Which format should I be using? H.264 or WMV?
2. What programs should I be using to rip from DVD and converting to whatever format I choose?
3. Are there any guides that I should be checking out? Specifically about what encoding options I can use with Xbox, as I've found it pretty strict with what it offers.
4. Are there are any good resources for Linux for all of this? I've been fooling around with Linux now and I greatly prefer CLI to GUI as it makes it easier to select features and run batch scripts.
5. Am I completely insane?
Quote:1. Which format should I be using? H.264 or WMV?
I would go for H.264...however this is highly compressed high quality video that is meant to be viewed on an iPod or similar so I'm not sure how well it would look on a full size screen. I've heard it looks very good, but don't have first hand experience. Encode to both formats and play them back and choose the one that looks the best to you.
Quote:2. What programs should I be using to rip from DVD and converting to whatever format I choose?
I would use DVDFab HD Decrypter (free) for the ripping and Staxrip for the encoding. Again, I've no practicle knowledge of Staxrip, but I trust the source of the guide to choose a worthy program.
Quote:3. Are there any guides that I should be checking out? Specifically about what encoding options I can use with Xbox, as I've found it pretty strict with what it offers.
Quote:4. Are there are any good resources for Linux for all of this? I've been fooling around with Linux now and I greatly prefer CLI to GUI as it makes it easier to select features and run batch scripts.
